Improved Simulation of Flow Regime Transition in Sewers: Two-Component Pressure Approach

Operational problems and system damage have been linked to the flow regime transition between free surface and pressurized flow in rapidly filling stormwater and combined sewer systems. In response, emphasis has been placed on the development of numerical models to describe hydraulic bores and other flow phenomena that may occur in these systems. Current numerical models are based on rigid column analyses, shock-fitting techniques, or shock-capturing procedures employing the Preissmann slot concept. The latter approach is appealing due to the comparative simplicity, but suffers from the inability to realistically describe subatmospheric full-pipe flows. A new modeling framework is proposed for describing the flow regime transition utilizing a shock-capturing technique that decouples the hydrostatic pressure from surcharged pressures occurring only in pressurized conditions, effectively overcoming the cited Preissmann slot limitation. This new approach exploits the identity between the unsteady incompressible flow equations for elastic pipe walls and the unsteady open-channel flow equations, and the resulting numerical implementation is straightforward with only minor modifications to standard free surface flow models required. A comparison is made between the model predictions and experimental data; good agreement is achieved.